Kawasaki Ninja ZX-10R

11th of March was a very grim day for us. In the morning I discovered that Mark’s bike is no longer in the garage. Someone broken in and took it. After the initial shock, I called the local police and reported the crime. Luckily we had a Tracker fitted to the bike. I called them up and asked them to turn the signal on, in order to locate the bike. To our surprise we were told that there is no ping and they are not able to locate it. We were asked to be patient and give them 48 hours. Some hours later, after the forensics department had finished with us, having dusted the garage and what was left of the garage door, we were done for the day. We felt quite hopeless. We had bought the Tracker so if we ever needed to find the bike its GPS should locate it for us; we had no idea that this might not be possible, the salesman forgot to mention this as an option. The Tracker people were blaming bad weather, snow, thick clouds; later on we were also giving as an excuse that someone might have parked it in an underground garage, which can apparently mute signal…even shipping containers where offered as a possibility for a lack of signal!

Days were passing by and there was no news regarding the location of Marks beloved bike. It was time to make a claim from the insurance company as chances of the bike being recovered by Tracker or the Police were growing ever slimmer.

The Insurance Company arrange for a private investigator to “look after” our case. After a 4 hour long meeting we felt exhausted. We had been asked over and over again the same questions but using slightly different wording, we had to repeat the same story what felt like forever. But… many hours on the phone, 100s of emails and 6 weeks later we received a cheque in the post! The next day after the cheque had landed on our door step, we started the hunt for a new bike. Luckily for me the first advert I looked at was ticking all the right boxes – model, age, mileage, colour… perfect, happy me and so I went to tell Mark to make him happy as well. We called the owner the same evening and arranged to view the bike in 2 days time. We were ready to buy if our “pet” mechanic gives us a green light after a thorough check up of the machine.

On Saturday Mark, Roy and Jonathan drove to the Ace Cafe in London to meet his potential new bike. She was perfect; shiny and without the scratches; the engine making ideal sounds not to mention the exhaust, almost like music. She passed all tests Roy had ready for her without any problems. So there it is our new Black Beauty!